Might have , that's not really Sarri's style , but who the hell knows.

I just know this team is slowly starting to operate Sarri's system to it's potential. I saw a lot of good things today (and against City) , irrespective of the score.

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They started the season very well though didn't they? I just don't think they're better than where they currently are in the table if they want to play "sarriball". They would need some big transfers going in and out, but now with the ban coming up things not looking too good unless there is a way to delay it..

They started the season very well though didn't they? I just don't think they're better than where they currently are in the table if they want to play "sarriball". They would need some big transfers going in and out, but now with the ban coming up things not looking too good unless there is a way to delay it..

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Yeah, they started off really well , but doesn't mean they understood the system. Sarri had like 3 weeks of pre-season. They just started hot , for whatever reason. Perhaps it was the freedom to actually play football for once.

They didn't know instantly know it , forget it , and then re-learn it. It's been a growing process the entire time , it's just we as fans are desperate for definitive answers and treat results as the holy truth.

I actually think Chelsea's lucky to have Sarri if the transfer ban happens. It'll give him a core group to work with and he'll be able to integrate some of their academy talent. Continuity is everything if you want this thing to work.

Year 2 , with the same players , they'll be ticking. Not good enough to win the league , but the system will be firing.

Time has passed, still nothing. But as I said it's understandable I would have prefered City over any of the other big teams aswell, just pointed out the obvious but maybe I should have done it in a different way.

Time has passed, still nothing. But as I said it's understandable I would have prefered City over any of the other big teams aswell, just pointed out the obvious but maybe I should have done it in a different way.

Not really sure how the FA decided on the games (all the top-6 playing on Wednesday - turns out they're at the same time as Real-Barca, so won't watch any PL games anyway ), but sometimes it's cool to just watch mid-table / bottom clubs duke it out.

Ended up watching Newcastle - Burnley.

Thing is, I remember Newcastle as a PL champion and a club Dinamo played in 98 in the CL qualification (and was robbed by the ref, but let's not get into that hah).
So, I'm sorta split when I watch them - I wanted them to win yesterday, but at the same time the whole Mike Ashley thing... I don't know, does it get better before hitting rock bottom?
Would the average Newcastle fan prefer to lose and go down if that meant Ashley would sell his bit and go away?

Anyway...
I know Rafa had a bad stretch at Madrid, but the job he's doing with Newcastle has been fantastic. It took a while, but the team I've seen tonight and in the Liverpool and City games certainly deserves to stay up and is looking so much better than when I watched them play in the first half of the season.

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Obviously, I am well above average and therefore cannot claim to speak for 50,000 Geordies (and speaking for even one other football fan is always risky, because football makes hypocrites, schizophrenics and double-thinkers of us time and again).

It's reached the stage where I'm unsure anything short of death unseats Ashley. I suspect for Newcastle to be rid of him would probably require not only relegation, but failure to regain EPL status before the parachute payments ran out. How many people would want to buy the club in that eventuality? Surely a prospective Ellis Short-style writing off of his investment to help the club belongs in the file marked 'pigs flying'.

It's pure guesswork, complicated by the fact that I'm not sure Ashley himself is entirely sure what he wants most. From the very start of his reign the simple greed that drove him to dominate the world of shabby sports goods retail has been diluted by a lethal cocktail of ego, neurosis and ignorance.

The tax evasion case against NUFC is little-mentioned by the mainstream media, but the result of that might prove transformative - NUFC could land a Rangers-style swingeing punishment and Ashley may lose a couple of minions to Liz Windsor's pleasure. Even then, however, we should bear in mind that when his shabby sports goods firm was found to have broken the law Ashley ploughed on without the least hint of remorse or shame.

Something else I have in mind is the question of whether 2020 holds strategic significance for Ashley. That was the year to which Alan Pardew, his staff and Graham Carr were contracted when they penned those eight-year deals the entire planet snorted at. Perhaps eight years was merely a figure pulled from the air at random. Besides, a scheme Ashley brewed in 2012 may have been scrapped following the 2015-16 relegation and the resultant cash hit.

I still maintain he'll only leave on what he can sell to his ego as his own terms. And I fear he'll finish by bringing the club crashing down around his ears. Mind you, Jesus Gil presided over a double. Maybe one of these days the gambler wins big. But it'd happen in spite of his presence.